The Great Falls Schools board approved a wage increase for paraprofessionals during their Jan. 8 meeting.

At the beginning of this school year, the district’s special education department struggled to attract and retain paraprofessionals.

“This struggle with attracting and retaining high-quality applicants has put significant stress and pressure on our existing staff inside the department. In order to attract and retain employees who support some of our most in-need
students, the district must increase salaries to allow our para educators to maintain a competitive starting salary,” according to Luke Diekhans, GFPS’ human resources director.

County, GFPS officials discuss May school election

This mid-year salary increase is needed, Diekhans wrote in his agenda report, to support existing staff and to attract new staff to support the district’s programs.

But the salary increase means a reduction in the total possible number of paraeducators the district can hire and the district will have to determine the best way to work with available resources, Diekhans said.

The increase will affect about 150 total positions, 140 of which are currently filled, according to the district.

Of the filled positions, 122 are funded through federal programs, four instructional paraprofessionals are funded by the district’s tax revenues, and 14 elementary student advocate paraprofessionals are funded through ESSER funds, which are education COVID relief funds.

GFPS board approves clerical union labor agreement

The district has one elementary student advocate and eight paraprofessionals on the federal funding side of the budget, according to the district.

The open positions are included accounted for in the estimated cost of the wage increase.

The board voted to approve a 75 cent per hour wage increase for paraprofessionals for the 93 days from Jan. 22 through June 30.

That increase is an estimated cost to the district of $79,758.

Of that, $2,166 will come from the general fund; $8,726 from ESSER funds and the remaining $65,866 from other federal funding sources, according to the district.